GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 7 introduced the character who would become Hal Jordan’s arch-foe, Sinestro, the renegade Green Lantern. Due to his abuse of power, Sinestro of Korugar, the Green Lantern of space sector 1417, was stripped of his title and his power ring by the Guardians and banished to the antimatter universe of Qward. In his first appearance, he was unarmed, but, the next time he showed up (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 9), he was armed with a yellow power ring, an evil duplicate of a Green Lantern ring which was constructed for him by the Weaponers of Qward. Unlike a Green Lantern ring, which was ineffective on the color yellow, Sinestro’s yellow ring had no weaknesses, and was charged by siphoning energy from real Green Lantern rings.
In its first appearance, Sinestro’s yellow ring, drawn by Gil Kane, was simply a yellow version of the standard Green Lantern ring (complete with GL symbol), although the band appeared tapered (whereas GL’s ring was usually drawn with a straight band during this era). Hal Jordan managed to defeat Sinestro by transmitting more of Jordan’s own green energy into Sinestro’s yellow ring than it could handle, shattering it.
Sinestro managed to escape from the prison Jordan constructed for him by using a spare yellow power ring he kept hidden in his boot (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 11). This time, the ring was drawn as a rather generic design, with a disc and a straight band, but no Green Lantern symbol.
Jordan again defeated Sinestro, who would continue to escape and then be recaptured several times thereafter (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 15, 18). Jordan presumably confiscated Sinestro’s ring after each of these defeats, but Sinestro would once again be armed with it each time he reappeared. Whether these were all the same ring or identical duplicates is not clear, but the same generic design remained.
In one appearance, Sinestro actually stole the central Green Lantern power battery from Oa and used it to create a small army of evil Green Lanterns to attack Hal Jordan and Alan Scott, and personally attacked them with both his own yellow ring and one of the “evil” Green Lantern rings he’d made (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 52).
Sinestro would later escape from captivity yet again, and would force the transformation of Carol Ferris—Jordan’s former employer and love interest—into the evil Star Sapphire in yet another attempt to kill Jordan. However, Sapphire ended up turning against Sinestro and battling him. Feigning surrender, Sinestro handed his ring over to Jordan only to then teleport both it and himself away from the scene of the battle (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 74).
Soon after, Sinestro would ally himself with the Witch Queen in an attempt to banish Jordan to another dimension. He combined his yellow ring with the Witch Queen’s sceptre to accomplish this, but was again defeated. By this time, Neal Adams had taken over from Gil Kane as artist, and drew Sinestro’s ring with a round gem in a small setting.
After escaping captivity once again, and working with the Weather Wizard to battle Green Lantern and the Flash (FLASH # 222), Sinestro, along with several other villains, was recruited by the Queen Bee to form an “Anti-Justice League”. However, his power ring ended up being melted by Superman’s heat vision. Immediately after that, he hired two alien assassins to kill Hal Jordan, but it is unclear whether or not he had yet replaced his own power ring (ACTION COMICS # 443-444).
Armed with a new ring, Sinestro returned to battle Jordan in space before luring him into a trap. Escaping from Jordan and Green Arrow, Sinestro then used a strange phenomenon called the Silver Twist to transport three three of them to a medieval-like world. Jordan captured him and confiscated his ring, but Sinestro subsequently made use of yet another duplicate yellow ring hidden in his belt (GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW # 91-92). Mike Grell, the artist at this time, drew Sinestro’s ring as more of a traditional signet ring with a round gem on the face, similar to Adams’ version.
Soon after, Sinestro joined the Secret Society of Super-Villains. As initially drawn by Pablo Marcos, his yellow ring included the Green Lantern symbol, but he (and subsequent artists Rich Buckler and Arvelle Jones) would soon continue drawing the same generic ring that Kane usually had (SECRET SOCIETY OF SUPER- VILLAINS # 1-5, 10, DC SPECIAL SERIES # 6).
After being sent back to Qward during a battle with Superman and Batman (WORLD’S FINEST COMICS # 254), Sinestro dragged the injured Guy Gardner out of the Phantom Zone and into Qward in order to lure Hal Jordan into a trap. Jordan rescued Gardner, and Jordan and Sinestro pursued each other to Earth, Korugar, back to Earth, and again to Qward. Before Sinestro escaped to Qward, Jordan managed to deprive him of his ring. Sinestro then had the Weaponers create a new and more powerful ring for him. As drawn by Joe Staton, both rings in this story used the same generic design (GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 123-125, 127).
After impersonating a Guardian (THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD # 173-174), Sinestro was again captured. However, by the time of the Crisis on Infinite Earths, he had again escaped, and was again armed with his yellow ring (CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS # 5, 9-10, GREEN LANTERN Vol. 2 # 197-198). As drawn by George Perez in CRISIS, his ring had a GL symbol, while over in GREEN LANTERN, Joe Staton drew the generic design.
His latest attempt to gain revenge on the Guardians and the Green Lantern Corps was thwarted, and Sinestro was captured by the Guardians and held in a Sciencell on Oa. His ring was once again confiscated.
Sinestro would escape one final time with the aid of the MadGod sector 3600, a cosmic entity which literally took up an entire space sector. The pair went on a swath of destruction across the universe, killing trillions. They were defeated by the Earth-based Green Lantern Corps, which had been formed after the Guardians departed for another dimension with their mates, the Zamarons. Fittingly, Katma Tui, the Korugarian who succeeded Sinestro as Green Lantern of sector 1417, landed the blow which defeated him. However, despite having his ring removed, Sinestro managed to free the evil Myrwhydden (another old foe of Hal Jordan’s) from his Sciencell, and the two attempted to battle the Green Lanterns yet again before being defeated (GREEN LANTERN CORPS # 217-221). As drawn by Joe Staton and Bill Willingham, Sinestro’s ring was the usual generic design.
Sinestro was finally placed on trial on Oa and executed by the full Green Lantern Corps (GREEN LANTERN CORPS # 222), which inadvertently set in motion a chain of events that destroyed the central power battery (and most power rings), and led to the dissolution of the Corps. However, Sinestro’s spirit survived within the central power battery, and would later try to take possession of John Stewart on several occasions.
Some time later, after the Guardians returned to rebuild the Corps, Guy Gardner (having been booted out of the Corps) sought a new power source so he could continue as a superhero. Remembering Sinestro’s yellow ring, he traveled to Qward in an attempt to get the Weaponers to make one for him, but was told that there had been only one—Sinestro’s—and that it had used up all of their supplies of the yellow mineral Qwardamite to construct it (...which flies in the face of the many different rings Sinestro used over the years, but, hey, the Qwardians ARE bad guys, and could have been lying).
Traveling to Oa, Gardner snuck into the Green Lantern crypt located beneath the Guardians’ citadel, and discovered that Sinestro’s ring (presumably yet another spare) was still on his entombed corpse’s hand, its invisibility shield having deactivated after his death. Gardner fought Sinestro’s spirt (both possessing the body of John Stewart as well as on its own), and took possession of the ring, using it as a free-agent superhero.
Gardner’s version of the ring was essentially the same version Joe Staton had previous drawn, although the size of the signet disc and gem wildly fluctuated, and Gardner’s stylized “G” symbol would only rarely be seen under the gem.
This ring was destroyed when Gardner confronted Hal Jordan—now the evil Parallax—on Oa (GUY GARDNER: WARRIOR # 21).
Prior to this, the Guardians had released Sinestro from the central power battery and restored him to life in an attempt to stop the now-mad Hal Jordan. Armed with a standard Green Lantern ring, Sinestro failed, and his neck was broken by Jordan, who proceeded to absorb the power of the central battery and kill the Guardians.
However, this was later revealed to be untrue. Sinestro had been pulling the strings all along, had faked his death, and caused Jordan’s possession by the fear entity called Parallax (GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH # 1-6). He proceeded to found his own Corps of warriors powered by the yellow light of fear, and armed with rings bearing a symbol inspired by the Parallax entity. But that’s another story...which I have yet to read!
As an aside, it should be noted that Sinestro’s animated form in the various iterations of the SUPER FRIENDS cartoon retained the original concept of a yellow version of the standard Green Lantern ring. Sinestro’s ring in the cartoon is identical to Hal Jordan’s except that it’s yellow with a blue Green Lantern symbol (whereas Jordan’s was white with a green GL symbol).
Alex Ross would follow suit, consistently depicting a yellow version of the standard Green Lantern ring.